‘Godzilla’ Script Being Rewritten By ‘Iron Man 3’ Scribe

While the general public remains largely unaware, hardcore geeks and cinephiles who attended Comic-Con 2012 were pleasantly surprised by the unveiling of Legendary Pictures and director Gareth Edwards’ (Monsters) teaser reel for the upcoming Godzilla reboot.

Our own Rob Keyes has had nothing but high praise for what he saw in the Godzilla Comic-Con panel – going so far as to say that Edward’s monster movie stole the thunder of a more anticipated monster movie offering, namely Guillermo del Toro’s Pacific Rim. Legendary (and parent studio Warner Bros.) is apparently so happy with the reaction that they’re trying to position Godzilla for the best success possible – including a script rewrite by Drew Pearce, the man who wrote the script for Marvel’s Iron Man 3.

The Godzilla reboot script has already passed through several hands, including Dark Knight Trilogy story writer David S. Goyer, whose screenplay was later revised by Max Borenstein, an up-and-coming writer who penned Warner Bros.’ in development adaptation of The Seventh Son. According to Variety, Pearce’s primary task with the Godzilla revision is to re-contextualize the story for older characters, as the studio reportedly has older actors in mind for the primary cast. In addition to working on Iron Man 3, Pearce was also the pen behind Marvel Studios’ now defunct Runawaysmovie, and is currently at work on the script fora different Robert Downey Jr. threequel, Sherlock Holmes 3, which is also housed at Warner Bros.

Drew Pearce also wrote ‘Iron Man 3’ for Marvel

Gareth Edwards has already promised that his vision of Godzilla will stick closer to the original version of the monster – primarily by having him do battle with other gigantic monster foes, rather than with human antagonists, as was the case in Columbia Pictures’ 1998 version. The Comic-Con teaser reel showed off the aftermath of an epic-looking battle on a decimated landscape; that hint of action, violence, and monster movie mayhem was, in some opinions, more enticing than any of the robots vs. monsters action shown off in Pacific Rim. That is to say: there seems to be great potential left in the Godzilla franchise, just waiting to be tapped.

We’re curious to know whom WB is eyeing for the film; they were seriousness enough about said candidate(s) to pay for another script re-write in order to accommodate them. As proven by Transformers (in ways both good and bad), the human element is always crucial in a film centered around CGI protagonists – and we don’t want to find ourselves with another Matthew Broderick as our leading man, do we? Stay tuned, as casting is sure to start to leak out sooner before later.